Mysterious Congo - In the Realm of the Great Apes

the congo river a pounding pulse across africa   the deepest river in the world  home to untold untamed creatures the tracks are fresh a leopard is close  by a real danger for young guerrillas but no leopard wants to face  him the 200 kilogram silverback yet this western lowland gorilla is no thug   macumba is a devoted family man doting over  three adult females five youngsters and a baby silverback macumba is the  undisputed boss of his clan the ten of them roam a woodland  region one-third the size of manhattan   looking for food and finding adventure today makumba takes his family to the  riverside where the trees hang heavy with fruit the baby loves to play in the water and that's okay as long as the  little ones stick to the shallows   the water's dangerous gorillas can't swim that's why western lowland  gorillas live only north   of the congo river they can't  make it across to the south bank the gorillas never go in past their waist they have no fear of heights though while  the females look for food macumba babysits above him his youngest mate finds some fruit and the older one wants a piece of the action but the younger one insists it's strictly  finders keepers the situation starts to turn ugly that's macumba's cue to step in and break it up playing referee to multiple mates can't be easy but the chief rules with a gentle  hand and he knows how to treat a lady especially when he realizes she's fertile if he were oblivious the female could also make  the first move either way nature takes its course so so so it's good to be king the missus meanwhile has  another hankering for termites the post-coital confection really hits the spot her daughter comes to see what's up she's never seen a snack that walks now she can play with her food gorillas rely on their agile  fingers they don't use tools and termites are about the biggest game gorillas  hunt they mainly eat leaves fruit and seeds macumba heads out in search of his supper sometimes the best dining spot lies outside the  neighborhood today he finds a small clearing with a big obstacle forest elephants macumba has reservations elephants can charge if they feel threatened  and he takes no chances with his family now the family can enjoy their salad until a sudden sound disrupts the picnic it might be the leopard the little ones grab their moms another silverback this could mean all-out war macumba has to make a tough decision if  he faces off against his opponent and wins   he can claim the loser's  mates and expand his harem but if he loses he loses everything he weighs his options before calling his clan back turns out king kong is a lover not a fighter as twilight falls the family heads to the  treetops where they build nests to sleep macumba stays on the ground guarding his family relaxed but vigilant western lowland gorillas live in the very heart of  africa including the democratic republic of congo   named for the congo river which cuts  through it on its way to the atlantic the congo's second largest tributary  the ubangi flows from the north and here the congo spreads up to 16 kilometers wide it acts like a giant moat  blocking all but the strongest   flyers and swimmers from crossing central africa and because of that the congo river is a game  changer in the evolution of the great apes   when the river formed millions of years ago   it pushed our closest living  relatives to the north side like us they use their smarts  to solve all sorts of problems chimps also use tools a little ingenuity gives them  access to almost any food source but there's one food they go bananas for fresh monkey meat chimps vigorously hunt red calabas monkeys they monitor every monkey jump a high wire act  without a net one wrong move and dinner is served chimps live by a strict code  an organized jungle land gang   smarter and often meaner than anyone else  around lanjo the dominant male gets to eat first as long as everyone keeps to  his or her place life is grand but this mother chimp dares to scoop the  rest of her clan on these fresh blossoms lanjo is one peeved primate he won't tolerate such disobedience  especially from a female she forgot her place in the rigid chimp family  hierarchy which is run like an old boy's club the head of the clan leads  a troop of lower adult males   females of any age and males  younger than 15 rank lowest of all among the males politics rules the day they form alliances with  one another to stay in favor   rise in the ranks or even grab control of the clan they strengthen bonds by picking off dead  skin and parasites the chimp version of golf someday when the alpha male  grows too old and weak to lead   one of these males will leverage  his alliances to take his place   these two left out of the group  have no future in chimp politics still they have it better than the females   for them it's every girl for  herself against the aggressive males this mother hides in the forest with  her baby to avoid them hassling her all she wants is peace and  quiet though here's the dilemma her absence might anger lanjo but it's too late the leader  securing his alliances   is itching to dominate the wandering female his mail subordinates grooming session  gets interrupted by a subtle noise scratching is their secret  signal lanjo calls his posse the search is on a storm blows in complicating the patrol by   masking the sound of anything  moving through the forest the female hunkers down  shielding her baby with her body hours later the storm has passed and the  males head back on her trail they spot her a henchman sneaks up under  the watchful eye of the leader by the time the mother sees him it's too late the baby is lost but it can save itself landrieu goes after the female  she'll get her punishment when a male chimp is about 15 years old he'll  start a lifetime of bossing and brutalizing   females the only other species to act  so violently against its own is humans chimps like gorillas and  other non-human great apes   can't swim here the congo's deep rivers  and fast-flowing streams fence them in just as land hems in the aquatic  residents of these waters the creatures living here have adapted ingenious  ways to thrive in the river's blinding silty soup the congo bashir is as prehistoric as it looks it uses an ancient method  to locate its prey by smell its protruding nostrils allow it to  sniff out even the subtlest odors leading this bashir to a trove of tasty tetras those flamboyant nostrils make the congo bashir   one of the most successful  predators in these waters but not the most bizarre in these waters one of the most  peculiar creatures is the elephant fish   it uses its trunk-like snout to probe  for small worms rummaging through the   sediment like a vacuum cleaner but that's not  what makes this fish unique among all fish this vacuum comes loaded with special features   to navigate in the murky water it sends out  electric pulses from an organ in its tail electro receptors in its body sense  nearby prey without seeing or touching it this fish's hideout was  washed away in the last flood now he's looking for a new layer with another  elephant fish it circles the roots several   times creating an entire 360-degree picture  in its head similar to a bat's echolocation this is the only fish in the world whose  brain compares proportionally to a human's   it takes a big brain to process so much  data and if the elephant fish were man-sized   its brain would be about the same  size as ours a first among fish we continue down the congo almost as far as  kinshasa the shape-shifting river takes a wild   ride plunging to the deepest point of any river in  the world but first the python-like congo slides   over a rock barrier into malibo pool and swallows  an area one third larger than chicago and then this is no storm on the atlantic this is still the congo   here the wide silent river unleashes its pent-up  rage at the world's most extensive rapids   livingston falls the fierce current five times the volume of  the mississippi defies anything to live here and yet animals manage at least  in the shallows near the shore in a shoebox size alcove beside  the deadly congo whirlpool the ultra slender lionhead cichlid  refuses to go with the flow this member of the tilapia family has a flattened  body with very low resistance to the rushing water still there's only so much pummeling  this battered fish can take   so he hides from the current in a cranny but now he faces another kind of resistance he won't relinquish his  precious home without a fight even facing tough competition the battle's won he gets to stay for now except for members of his own species  the ultra slender lionhead cichlid has   no other rivals for food or shelter he's super  specialized for this tiny turbulent location the congo is peppered with  these micro environments   each little niche hosting its own  specialized fish to exploit it the churning water is a crucible of evolution this one 350 kilometer stretch  from malibo pool to the atlantic   contains over half as many fish  species as in all the waters of europe about 145 kilometers west of kinshasa   the turbulent water gushes at 50 kilometers  per hour into the world's deepest river canyon a silent lightless world nothing lives down here almost the water exerts a crushing pressure  20 times higher than on land   and that's at more than 200  meters below the surface the water down here looks almost viscous even here there is life  perfectly at home in the abyss   where it's too dark to see or be seen the blind  spiny eel has no need for color or sharp vision scientists are pretty much in the dark  about what it eats or how it lives just as oceans define continents the congo river  divides central africa chopping it up into smaller   separate domains its haphazard currents and  depth spur evolution and defy exploration 19 today the land south of the river remains one  of the least studied regions on our planet as late as 1933 the same year the film  king kong came out scientists named a new   and distinct species of great apiare but  most of us have still never heard of it the world's most recently  discovered great ape is no king kong   in fact it's smaller than a chimpanzee it's a bonobo while chimps hang out strictly  north of the congo river   bonobos only swing in the south  and they couldn't be more different bonobos take orders from a  loose sisterhood girl power the alpha female looks after her five-year-old son   her young prince he's mostly independent which  is good because he's about to be displaced his newborn little sister will  win most of mom's attention some members of the group enjoy  the sweetest fruit on the tree putting the others in a  sour mood so far all's calm until another hungry group of bonobos  approaches if this were the chimp   side of the river that would mean war but  bonobos don't settle differences by fighting the way to make peace is simple make love   bonobos are one of the few animals who use sex  for more than baby-making right now it's soothing   social conflicts anyone can participate young or  old male or female in almost every combination jungle love does the trick everyone mellows out  and even the newcomers get to enjoy some fruit bonobos rarely resort to violence but the  males have a shorter fuse than the females   who form a friendly sorority the females  use sex not only to keep the peace   but also to win popularity  contests among the other girls the prince will come to realize he doesn't  have much of a say in this girl's world this assertive male already  understands he has no status the young prince outranks him but the older  fellow has ambition besides he's bigger refusing to settle sensing an opportunity  he makes a bold grab for power the uppity ape won't stop  bullying the young prince the leader frowns on the power  play but chooses to wait and see when the commotion spreads to  the group she's forced to act   calming the younger ones bonobo style but it doesn't work the young male flees   the leader pursues not to punish him but to  settle the dispute the only way she knows how her gentle dedication to keeping  order is the secret to her success and it rubs off on the rest of her group then something extraordinary happens   unlike gorillas bonobos like meat a lot a  rabbit-sized antelope would hit the spot a female sneaks up on it surprisingly the peaceful bonobos hunt as  chimps do hardly anyone's filmed it before bonobos divvy up their kill no one goes hungry or has to fight for a share bonobo females rely on cooperation not  competition to keep the family fit and healthy if chimps are the warriors  then bonobos are the hippies their location along the congo over the last  million years might explain why they're so   laid back the rainforest south of the congo  provides bonobos with all the food they could want   and no gorillas to share it with when the  pickings are easy there's no need to compete but north of the congo chimps  deal with gorillas in their midst   and have to hone their competitive  edge even against each other when the congo river took his current form he may   have split the eight populations that  later evolved into bonobos and chimps   humans are equally related to both beyond kinshasa the congo  squeezes through narrow gorges   until it finally reaches the atlantic  after a 5 000 kilometer odyssey but remarkably even against the wide  atlantic the mighty congo holds its   own sending a surface plume of fresh  water up to 800 kilometers into the sea the sediment it carries spreads  20 kilometers into the ocean the congo rainforest meets the  sea at pongara national park it's february the start of the rainy season and also an earth-shaking event the time of the turtles this one's overslept most of her  siblings have hatched and gone off   but she is in good company  with the other stragglers at night the young turtles orient  themselves by the moonlight   now it's confoundingly bright everywhere besides navigating by the light turtles  rely on the earth's magnetic field   and probably other methods  we don't even know about as they scuttled the few meters to the ocean  their internal compasses aligned to the north the shortest distance between two  points isn't necessarily a straight line   but the compass doesn't know that this young female has worn herself out but most of the others are on the right track at last the young female manages  to negotiate the tree trunk   using all she has left she pushes herself forward   and into danger she faces one more turtle  hurdle crabs they can gang up and attack her not today there's no stopping her now slow and steady may win the race  but only one out of a thousand   leatherback sea turtles will  survive their first few years if she makes it in about a  decade she'll return to this   exact spot sexually mature  and ready to lay her eggs and when her hatchlings head into the  ocean the congo will flow right alongside you

Channel: Free High-Quality Documentaries

Views: 5,147,106

Keywords: Free High-Quality Documentaries, HD, Full HD, Quality, apes, silverback, congo, river, central africa, jungle, trees, rain, fish, elefant fish, leopard, danger, Kinshasa, guerrillas, natgeo, animals, wildlife, science, explore, discover, survival, nature, culture, documentary, perpetual planet full episode, full documentary, animal documentary

Id: _hDqx9diJnw

Length: 48min 1sec (2881 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 12 2022